


On Ice

by RaeSone99



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-16
Updated: 2013-04-16
Packaged: 2017-12-08 15:39:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/763077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaeSone99/pseuds/RaeSone99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A snowmobile chase gone horribly wrong brings both Tony and Ziva within a snowballs throw of the end.</p>
<p>This is my first time posting, so bear with me please. Comments welcome!</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Ice

“Ziva, come back to me!” Tony yelled even as the tears began. Her olive complexion was becoming chalky and her lips were turning blue. Her normally thick brown hair was clumped around her face in wet ropes. He knew his own hair was dripping onto her forehead but it wouldn’t matter in a few minutes if her breathing didn’t improve. Years of conditioning brought his mind to the scene in “Tangled” where Rapunzel’s tears soaked into Flynn’s skin; the last bit of magic left. But he was no prince. And the knife wound was a head wound. McGee had already gone off for help and it was just him and Ziva on ice. Just like always.

“Z-Ziva” his teeth chattered, “Gibbs is gonna k-kill us if you don’t snap out of it!”

He knew it didn’t make sense but they were partners, they were in each other’s lives, inextricably… Maybe it was time to remind her of that.

“And if you go you’ll have to take me with you, you know that right?”

He held his ear by her nose, feeling weak warm bursts on his earlobe. If he used his imagination he’d say they were irritated bursts because he wouldn’t even let her die in peace. Encouraged he kept going, “Because it’s true…what I said in Somalia…”

He imagined her interrupting him with a warning, ‘Tony…’ but of course she didn’t. She did, however, cough.

“Ziva?” his heart leaped, and crashed into his Adam’s apple, making him swallow hard.

 She coughed again, and then spluttered violently awake, gripping his upper arms with so much force that he could feel each indiviual finger through his thick, insulated coat. He’d have bruises tomorrow, not that he cared. Her eyes wheeled around wildly before Mossad training kicked in and she focused on the one thing in the white expanse that made sense: him. He locked eyes with her staring grimly as she her pupils contracted and dilated and then contracted again. Her voice came out weak, and hoarse, but aware, “T-t-tony. What h-happened?”

Relief rushed over him like a warm shower.

“Your snow mobile got clipped and you fell off when it spun out, and hit your head on the ice.” He left out the part about her scalp bleeding so hard that the snow around her head resembled spilt red wine on white carpet. She reached a gloved hand up to his cheek and croaked, “You have been...crying?”

“yeah…I kind of lost it for a moment there. McGee may never forgive me.” He wasn’t joking. He could only hope McGee understood, but when he saw the snowmobile spin out, her hands wrenched from McGee’s waist… When he saw McGee and the snowmobile go one way and her body arcing through the falling snow in the other direction…logical thought had left him. Clear thinking was a distant dream that dissolved in that moment. All his pilotless body knew was that _Ziva_ was hurt, and McGee was responsible. No doubt he’d feel bad in a few hours if they made it through unharmed but for now, he had other, more important things in his arms to worry about.

 Ziva looked as if she was going to say something but at that moment her eye lashes began to flutter.

“NO!” She started at his shout.

 “You can’t go to sleep… Not again.” The last part was whispered.

 “But I am cold,” she mumbled, already starting to doze off again. He shook her shoulders. Off in the distance he could hear the buzz of a snowmobile. Her eyes snapped back open.

“Tony. I am not concussed and if you do not let me sleep I _will_ make you pay.” At this bit of slurred yet sharp retort Tony’s lips lifted a little. He’d take payback until forever because there was no way in a million years he was letting her sleep.

“You can make me pay as soon as we get home, because here comes McGee.”

She gave a little smile at the word “home” and her face began to relax in a suspicious facsimile of sleep. The snow mobile roared closer. Tony’s heartbeat picked up. So close, so close to getting to safety.

“Ziva,” he growled, “if you don’t wake up this second I will be forced to _help_ you do so Disney style.” Her eyes flew open and bored into his. The night before they’d watched a Princess marathon at his place. She’d used his shoulder as a pillow the entire time, her arm intertwined with his, the scent from the cocoa in his hand luring them both to sleep.

“Tony...” another warning, this one laced with violence. But was she going to do? He was already holding her in his arms to shield her from the wind, and talking just wasn’t working. She held on defiantly; staying awake on the ice, on the snow mobile and even in the hospital despite stitches and a heavy blanket to combat the hypothermia.

He stayed by her side the entire time only resting at her bedside once she did, which she did only _after_ he assured her that there would be no “Sleeping Beauty”, “Snow White”, or any other classic princess film recreation if she did. He would have been miffed by her resistance (or what he personally was starting to believe was spite) except sometime during the night a gentle hand ran through his hair, a pair of lips pressed into his temple, and a voice in the soft accent that he loved tickled his ear with a “Thank you.”

Two thoughts drifted through his brain as he finally succumbed to sleep…He’d have to apologize to McGee…and maybe rewatch “Tangled”… if he ever moved from this spot.


End file.
